MB, I understand all that. But predicting the future is not easy. Just ask anyone in the financial markets. Stock broker analysts are frequently wrong, even when they are just predicting where the market will go. Why should we think of auto market analysts any differently? Unless, of course, they work for General Motors - a favorite whipping boy. And it’s not just the analysts. Management still calls the shots. Market analysis is an input they use.
“piter_devries, what Dear Leader are you referring to, North Korea’s president, or congressional Republicans who voted for the bailout?”
You mean the minority party at the time? Hardly.
JT, I understand what you’re saying, but I strain to think of anyone who didn’t realize a year ago that the market for big trucks was going to be dead. With what was going on in housing starts, construction, retailing, manufacturing, and the economy in general, it was a no-brainer.
I maintain that the problems is that they’re still making management decisions based on the numbers from the factories (the eternal quest for manufacturing efficiency) more than from market projections.
piter_devries, regardless, there were Democrats who voted against it. It wouldn’t have passed without Republican support, especially since they hold the power to filibuster in the Senate. You can only use the “minority party” whine, I mean excuse, if the bill was passed against all of their objections. Republicans were complicit, but I don’t hear you calling them communists.
You can attack Obama all you want, but he came to power by receiving a majority of the votes. That must really irk you.
You have no idea what irks me. The election of a President who doesn’t meet my standards is way far down on the list. The beauty part of Obama’s election is that in the future if an incompetent black candidate runs (I’m talking about you, Herman Cain) we can oppose that candidate, call him Herman Cain for the sake of this discussion, without being accused of racism, simply because he’s incompetent. That’s why Obama’s election pleased me more than irked me: in the future we can say “Let’s hold out for someone competent.”
You don’t hear me calling anyone a Communist.
You do make a valid point about Republican support. Conceded.
You can put lipstick on a pig, but it doesn’t make the bailout right.
When Obama was elected, he was elected because he was the better candidate. At the time of the election, he had about the same level of experience, if not slightly more, than Abraham Lincoln when he was first elected, and as far as I am concerned, Lincoln was a pretty good President.
People like you are so predictable. When your candidate has experience, you walk around saying how valuable experience is. When your candidate has less experience as the other candidate, you say everyone should vote for your candidate because he or she is a “Washington outsider” who hasn’t been tainted by experience. If Obama had been a senator for 40 years, you would be complaining that he shouldn’t have been elected because he was a “Washington insider.”
You didn’t use the word “communist,” but you did reference Obama as “Dear Leader,” which I know is your way of comparing him to Kim Jong Il. It’s a backdoor way to call Obama a Communist, and you know it. I am sure things like that substitute for wit in your circles, but here, there are folks like me who know the difference.
If I am wrong, and you meant something else when you wrote, “Good thing Dear Leader bailed GM out.”, please tell us all exactly what you meant.
I think it’s less harsh than calling him The Boy President. Do you “know” that’s my way of comparing him to Boy George?
The important thing about Kim Jong Il isn’t that he’s a communist, it’s that he’s an insane dictator.
If Obama had been a senator for 40 years, I’d be concerned about his age.
“People like you are so predictable.” People like me? Is that a backdoor way of saying “Jew”? or “Papist”?
At least Lincoln actually practiced law, and showed up occasionally for his job in the legislature.
Really, why the bile?
Actually, Piter, we might ask you the same question.
And Whitey, how can you compare Obama the Democrat to Lincoln the Republican?
It seems odd to refer to Lincoln as a Republican. How times change our institutions.
And one more thing: Please don’t refer the President George W. Bush as Boy George. He did a tough job during difficult times. He deserves better than that.
I get jokes.
blame the unions 
W has a new do!
Wow, that doesn’t look like the Boy George I remember from decades ago. I didn’t age that much…